Combo Platter

As promised, today is the day I highlight my pupsters since the kitties had their day in the limelight recently. And, I will have some other great ways to give following the dogs. Hopefully, this will provide a needed distraction from $500 bottles of wine served by the White House; the "Will he or Won't He," and "Will She or Won't She" for the Secretary of State position; and a bit of a release from seeing those incessant two-minute commercials for Obama coins. Oh, BLECH.

First, though, I was remiss in describing my cat, Bug, fully - he absolutely LOVES when I whistle. He comes running from wherever he is in the house to rub up against me, roll around on the floor purring, or headbutting me. AND, he loves when I give him some of the milk foam from the cappuccino or latte I am making (former for me, latter for my partner). He loves it.

And when I said Punkin' thinks I am her mother, she exhibits this behavior by sucking on my fingers. She is over 5 yrs old now, but that doesn't stop her. She will GRAB my hand to get what she wants.

Okay, now for the dogs. We have two now, having lost our two greyhounds within two months of each other 1 1/2 years ago. We have Sasha, a border collie mix, whom we adopted from the SPCA when she was about 1 year old 12 years ago. We call her Skippity Do Dog because she prances around everywhere. Sasha absolutely loves everyone - dogs, cats, kids, anyone...Now, it is hard to get a good picture of her because she seems to think the camera will steal her soul (I am not kidding), but here is our cute girl (with my old cat, Mariah, who died of cancer this year):



Then there is Sweetie, a chow/lab mix, whom we rescued from some abusive neighbors 9 years ago. At the time, she was clinically emaciated, and had had two litters of puppies - by the age of 1. She got her name because she would come by our house almost every day for a treat, and was definitely a sweetie, just as cute as she could be. Now, she has an autoimmune disease, from which we almost lost her a couple of years ago, but from which she is now in remission, thank heavens. She's a great watchdog (she actually barks at people - Sasha is more in the licking people genre), but is great with kids and kittens. Here's Sweetie (and it is hard to take pictures of her because when you pet her prior to the photo taking, she tilts her head up and closes her eyes):



For the Big Guy, LJ, and since I had those videos of the cat, I give you Peggy, the Rottweiler (she's just a beautiful Rottweiler specimen, don't you think?):



And now, for a fun, easy, FREE way to give to people, animals, and the environment. You may already know about these sites. There are three I recommend to you. The first is The Hunger Site. At this site you can click for the Rainforest, breast cancer, animal rescue, children, literacy, and hunger, as the name suggests. All it takes is a click of the mouse, and you have helped someone or something.

Affiliated with The Hunger site is FreeRice.com, which, as the name implies, gives free rice to people in need. This site is a little different, though - to acquire the grains of rice, you have to correctly define a word (there are four possible definitions). Don't worry if you don't get it the first time, it will come back around, and frankly, they can use some mighty archaic definitions sometimes...Anyway, it's good for your brain, and helps people. Bonus!

The last one is Care2.com, which covers global warming, baby seals, the oceans, big cats, primates, pets, children, breast cancer, and violence against women. Again, just click along and you are helping all of these causes.

In these difficult economic times, it is an easy way to give needed services to people and animals, as well as helping the environment and related causes. What could be better? And you can do it daily, which is what I do. It is just part of my daily constitutional now. It's fun, it's free, and it helps. A triple bonus!

Let's hear about your animals, or sites of which you are aware that help people, animals, or the environment. Or anything, for that matter. Consider this an open thread.